All posts tagged Justin Braun

We knew coming into this Stanley Cup Final that another Minuteman would join goaltender Jon Quick on the Stanley Cup as this year’s championship featured the Pittsburgh Penguins and Conor Sheary versus the San Jose Sharks and Justin Braun. Minuteman vs Minuteman. Captain vs Captain. The only question was who it would be. In the end the Penguins, behind both its superstar players and its emerging rookies, ended up being the victors and claimed the Stanley Cup in six games.

UMass has secured commitments today from a couple of left-shooting centers for this fall. The first came from forward Brett Boeing, who left Michigan Tech after his first semester this past winter. Boeing will be eligible to suit up for the Minutemen for the 2nd semester this coming season and could make his debut at the Mariucci Classic in Minnesota. The second came a few hours later from Luke McElhenie. Both players played most recently in the USHL.

Many UMass fans, including myself, were ecstatic that the Pittsburgh Penguins and San Jose Sharks would be playing for the Stanley Cup because it guaranteed that a Minuteman would be immortalized on Lord Stanley’s chalice by the end of the series. It wasn’t expected however that the two former UMass captains playing, San Jose defenseman Justin Braun and rookie Pittsburgh forward Conor Sheary, would be having such a significant impact on the outcome of the series.

Last week was a busy one on the recruiting front as UMass received four commitments for this coming season over the course of three days. I covered three of the four in my most recent posts. But on May 26th Coach Carvel and his staff secured another , this time from Jonny Lazarus, a right shooting right wing who played this past season for the Wichita Falls Wildcats in the NAHL.

Time to get everyone up to date on the recent goings on surrounding UMass hockey and college hockey in general. Look for previews of the coming season to start in earnest following the long weekend.

UMass made official the hiring of John Gobeil as Director of Hockey Operations. Gobeil comes to Amherst from Vermont, where he had served in the same role for his alma mater during the past three years. A full time Director of Hockey Ops is something that is commonplace across the rest of competitive college hockey and long overdue for the Minuteman program. Welcome to the UMass family, John. You’ll be out of the spotlight, but still making a significant contribution to the success of the team.

The official roster has been updated with incoming freshman K.J. Tiefenwerth, Evan Stack, Shane Walsh, and Connor Doherty. I would point out that all other players are on the roster and expected to return.

Hockey’s Future had this excellent article regarding recent UMass alums making strides towards playing in the NHL. Featured are Justin Braun, Matt Irwin, Casey Wellman, Paul Dainton, Mike Marcou, and his brother James Marcou.

Speaking of UMass football, I cannot wait to head to East Hartford tomorrow (have those words ever been written?) to watch the Minutemen kick off the FBS era against UConn. I, and others, have been waiting a long time for this and still have vivid memories of UMass embarrassing the Huskies 62-20 in the last meeting.

Sitting at the British Beer Company in Walpole Saturday trying to forget a loss in perhaps the last ever football game with UNH, it was great to look up to the TV and see that the Sharks had brought up Justin Braun to play against the Bruins. He finished the night even in 15 minutes of play.

Sad news in college hockey today as the Alabama-Huntsville Chargers announced this will be the last season for the program at the DI level. This is a disappointing product of challenging geography, a short-sighted administration, and the inability of the other college hockey schools to find a place for the Chargers who were left standing when the CHA disbanded and the conference realignment music stopped. It’s still unbelievable that with all the upheaval, with all the shuffling, with conferences coming in and out of existence in the last couple years that no one found a slot for the UAH program. It should be noted that the Chargers had won multiple national championships at the DII level and had more NCAA appearances than a number of other college hockey programs, including UMass. But that wasn’t enough for the remaining schools and conferences and UAH was left to die on the vine. There are not enough college hockey teams out there if you ask me. It’s tough to see one with history and tradition, created in spite of its unique locale, disappear from the college hockey scene.

Experience. Is Boston University the most talented squad in the league? Maybe. Maybe not. But they are experienced. They bring back their entire roster save for two players. Granted, those were two key players, Joe Pereira led the team in goals while David Warsofsky was one of the better defensemen in Hockey East, but the Terriers should be able to make up for their absence and then some. Alex Chiasson will likely be one of the superstars of the league. He and Chris Connolly will be expected to shoulder the scoring load while sophomores Matt Nieto and Charlie Coyle build off their strong freshman seasons last year.

Warsofsky leaving early to join the Bruins hurts somewhat but up and coming defensemen Garrett Noonan and Adam Clendening will help solidify the blueline which also includes the talented Max Nicastro. In net Kieran Millan returns for his fourth year. While I’ve always thought him to be somewhat overrated, his experience alone will help BU contend for the league title, especially with so many other teams going in with question marks in net.

They’ll Finish Lower Because: Millan is unable to replicate the numbers of the past few years.

They’ll Finish Higher Because: A typo in the standings puts them at 0.1.

However it appears that Mike Kostka has made the Florida Panthers roster out of training camp and will look to make his NHL debut.

I received some bad news about Alex Berry, who was in camp with the AHL’s Portland Pirates. In practice on Saturday Berry sustained an injury that broke his arm and damaged his wrist. The compound fracture of the bone ended up severing an artery and doing some nerve damage. The good news is they got him sewn up and he has some metal in his arm to help him heal. The bad news is it’ll likely be a lengthy recovery. Certainly my thoughts go out to him and hope he heals quickly.

I wanted to share a few links before I pack up the car and head west to the football home opener. Should be a good game as the Minutemen take on Rhode Island for perhaps the last time ever. There’s few things I enjoy more than a fall afternoon spent at McGuirk hanging with the other UMass fans, grilling, drinking good beer, and watching football.

Dick Baker of the Republican has a couple good stories from the official first day of practice. Toot Cahoon likes the depth he has on his team in the first one. And then he has a feature on the towering Oleg Yevenko. I had hoped to swing by the practice rink today while I’m out in Amherst to see how the players look but unfortunately there’s no practices scheduled today.

Those results include my vote, which I just cast. For the reasons I outlined last week I’ve always wanted UMass to have its chief rivalry with Boston College. I think the dynamics I mentioned; two largest athletic programs, play each other in all sports, and the state agricultural school versus private school in the city, work very well to building a rivalry. But because UMass has had little success against BC on the ice and the Eagles are already part of one of the better rivalries in college hockey, I don’t think this will ever come to fruition.

For those reasons my vote went to Vermont. While these teams haven’t played a lot of important games in recent time, they do have history going back further than most other choices on the list. They also already have established traditions like the Turkey Tuesday game and if in fact they do play each other at Fenway this winter, it will only add to the connection between the schools. A major consideration for choosing the Catamounts is that they don’t currently have a chief rival. You can’t say the same for Maine. While the Black Bears and Minutemen have had some thrilling games and have both gotten their licks in against each other, I’m sure if you asked a Maine fan who their rivals are they’d say UNH, BU, and everyone else.

Thanks to everyone who provided their feedback, either through comments and voting. It was great to hear what other UMass fans and even some non-UMass fans thought on this subject.

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